Palm Coast boy, 3, battling cancer is a 'little fighter'

Kase Powell was 18 months old when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He's now 3, and his story of endurance has spread across the country.

TONY HOLTSTAFF WRITER

PALM COAST — A resident physician took one look at Kase Powell's larger brother and jumped to the wrong conclusion. "So, this is Kase's big brother?" he asked the boy's parents. "No, this is his twin," his father answered. In terms of development, the pair appeared to be way more than minutes apart in age. The Wolfson Children's Hospital resident suspected something was medically wrong with Kase. It was already starting to get dark outside, but the doctor didn't want to wait until morning to get to the bottom of it. "I would like to get a CAT scan so I can sleep better tonight," he told the boy's parents. His intuition was right. When it came time to explain Kase's condition to his parents, a neurosurgeon at Wolfson in Jacksonville delivered the news. Kase had a tumor in his brain — a large mass that was pressing against his pituitary gland. It was stunting his growth. It was also giving Kase intense headaches. There was spinal fluid blockage in his brain, which led to vomiting and lethargy. Kase was 18 months old when he was diagnosed. He's now 3, and his story of endurance has spread across the country. His parents, Ken and Amy Powell, live in Palm Coast. They have no other family in the area but they are hearing from supporters far and wide — from Florida to Washington state. Surgery was performed on Kase four days after he was diagnosed. Ninety-five percent of the tumor was removed. It saved Kase's life, but nothing is likely to spare him from having regular treatments and visits to the doctor. "He'll always have the cancer," said his father, Ken Powell. "It will never go away." Based on classifications from the World Health Organization, Kase has a grade-two brain tumor, a malignant mass that grows slowly, but persistently. Kase's latest chemotherapy treatment was last week. He visits his doctors in Jacksonville every few months. "We live life in three-month increments," Powell said. He said Kase's cancer has had periods of growth, stability and shrinkage. It's an ongoing concern. Lives have varied for those children who share Kase's condition. "It's across the board," Powell said. "Some live short lives, while others live mostly normal lives."

CHEERLEADERS HONOR KASE

Towne & Reese, a jewelry line out of Charlotte, N.C., offers a Kase Necklace. All of the proceeds go toward the Kase Powell Fund. Because it has been such a popular item, it is out of stock until a new order is shipped near the end of the month, according to the store's website. An old family friend of Amy Powell's owns the company. The design of the necklace includes a gray stone that signifies the color of brain tumor awareness and the metal represents community strength. Kim Cherry-Beck, coach of the Western Carolina University cheerleading team and a fan of the jewelry line, learned the story behind the necklace and shared it with her squad. They dedicated their season to Kase. "Obviously, he's our team's hero," said Cherry-Beck. "He's a fun-loving boy who's fighting a hard battle. He's so brave." On April 11, the team competed at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach. Ken and Amy Powell brought Kase to the competition and he met his admirers face-to-face for the first time. "He took off hugging all of them," his mother said. The lobby was extremely noisy and filled with people, mostly college students who have proven abilities to show spirit. But the loudest screams that afternoon came from the cheerleaders from Western Carolina when they first saw Kase. "I instantly got cold chills," said Logan Farnsworth, 20, a junior on the team. "I started tearing up when I saw him. "He was really sweet. He gave us hugs and he gave us high-fives ... He was shy, but you could tell he was so happy to see us." All 26 members of the team wear bracelets with Kase's name on one side and the words "Fight Back" etched on the other. Kase's fight against cancer is their source of inspiration. They tell each other to "do this for Kase" before each competition, Farnsworth said. The team had the third-best score out of the preliminary round and finished sixth in the finals.

BOND OF BROTHERS

Ken Powell is in the real estate development business and his wife is a registered nurse. She works nights so she can be with her sons during the day. Her husband handles parenting duties at night. Kase undergoes speech, occupational and physical therapy twice a week. He's still noticeably shorter than his brother, Knox, but in terms of development, he is closing the gap. His therapists told his mother they expect him to be close to Knox's level by the time both of them turn 5. "People look at them and don't think they're twins," their mother said. One day after Kase's chemotherapy treatment last week, he was walking around the house and smiling wide. His father assumed he would be too groggy to come out and greet any guests that afternoon, but he gave them high-fives before cheerfully climbing onto his mother's lap. "He's very loving," his mother said of Kase. Knox likes to run around. He swings. He climbs. He's active. Kase, by comparison, is more subdued. He is content flipping through a book while his brother runs laps throughout the house. The two of them have different personalities, but the innate connection twins often have with each other has taken shape between Knox and Kase, their parents said. "He's realizing there are some differences," Ken Powell said of Knox. "He'll ask me, 'Kase is sick?' " Now that Knox has that understanding of his brother, he watches him more closely. "He's very protective of him," his mother said. The two attend the same school, but they go to different classes. Before school starts for Knox, he insists on walking Kase to his classroom. Then he hugs him and tells him goodbye.

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